Rank and Count, now together in one formula!

RANK is a nice function. You can use it to see where an item falls on a list. You can get that same information by sorting the list, but there will be times when another sort takes precedence, and RANK will save the day.

Start typing in the formula in the formula bar
=Rank(
and then hit the fx to bring up the Rank Wizard box
(there's other ways to do this. Pick the one you like best.)

Here's the wizard box.


The number is the value that you want to rank. The Ref is the range of numbers that are being ranked. Be sure to make this absolute using the dollar signs or your range will change when you copy and paste your formula down. The order specifies order. If you leave it blank, it assumes 0 which is descending. If you choose 1, it is ascending. In other words, the largest number in the list will be ranked number 1 if you choose 0 or leave it blank. The largest number in the list will be ranked last if you choose 1.

If the list includes values which are the same, they will have the same rank.

Assuming that a rank is only important in relation to the number of values, I like to add a count.

In this instance, I want to count values in a spreadsheet that I will be adding to over time. So, instead of counting an absolute list such as $B$2:$B$67, I'm counting the whole column. My count formula looks like this:
=COUNT(B:B)

If I wanted to count an absolute list, it would look like this:
=COUNT($B$2:$B$67)

When I put the rank together with the count the formula looks like this:
=RANK(B2,$B$2:$B$68)&" of "& COUNT(B:B)

I used the "&" to concatenate the two functions together with the text string " of ".

The spreadsheet looks like this:


Putting the two formulas together means that I can get rid of columns G and H entirely. I just left them in to show my work.

I don't use Rank very often. I do use COUNT pretty often. I rarely use the two together. But, when I've needed them, it sure has been nice...